Moscow allows rally on eve of Putin’s swearing in

Moscow authorities have allowed Russia’s opposition movement to hold a mass rally in the heart of the city on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a third term, organisers said on Thursday.

“City Hall has approved the march for May 6,” organiser and opposition politician Sergei Udaltsov wrote on his Twitter account after several days of negotiations with city officials.

Protesters will march about 1.5 kilometres (one mile) and across the Moscow River before assembling on Bolotnaya Square, site of the first rally that drew a surprising number of people in December and energised Putin’s foes.

The protests that rolled over Russia this winter in response to disputed parliamentary elections drew tens of thousands of people for the first time since the early 1990s and appeared to momentarily stun the authorities.

But their numbers quickly dwindled after Putin’s thumping March 4 election, and the nascent movement has since tried to come up with a new strategy to breathe new life into their cause.

Some of more radical protesters have suggested holding unauthorised gatherings, with top Putin critic Alexei Navalny writing on Twitter in jest that the authorities had approved a “tent city on Manezh square” next to the Kremlin.

The opposition promised after the last mass rally in March to challenge Putin’s inauguration with a “March of Millions”, and Muscovites have pooled funds to bring activists from other cities in order to muster a good showing.